Canberra
Just
home now from a very, very full on day if I have ever had one. I woke up around 7:45 and Ashley and I had
left the house by 8:30.
Our first stop of the morning was for brekkie. We went to Tilley’s Cafe in Lyneham. We got there a few minutes before 9:00 and had to wait outside. As 9:00 rolled around a crowd had begun to gather, and we snagged a table among the many which had been reserved. The restaurant, a lounge and music club by night, filled up quickly – a testament to a very strong weekend breakfast culture that exists in Canberra that Ashley had told me about. I got pancakes with bacon and cream. The pancakes themselves were great, but the bacon and cream were honestly nothing to write home about (though turns out I did anyways). We chatted for a while and then headed off to our first non-gastronomic site for the day.
Being the nation’s capital, there became a desperate need for a massive telecommunications tower to relay broadcasts and get news in and out of the valleys that make up the city. In the 1980s it was decided to construct a massive tower on the top of Black Mountain on which to place and array of satellites. To justify the monstrosity which would be seen from everywhere in Canberra, towering over the natural landscape, they attempted to make an amenity of it by putting an observation deck and restaurant on top of it. And thus, Telstra Tower, I think now officially Black Mountain Tower was born. The view from the top was spectacular, giving a good idea of just how isolated the city is within the ‘Australian Alps’ and giving a very good perspective from which to view the urban layout of Canberra. It was quite windy at the top of the tower, and the morning had started off at a balmy 0C. None the less, the hole in the ozone layer that exists above Australia served to make the sun fairly warming.
After we had our fill of the sites we rode the lift back down the tower and descended back into the valley to head to our first museum (of which there are many in the city). We got to the National Australian Museum and only just saw the first tiny exhibit before Ashley informed me that his friend who works at Parliament, Laura, was going to be meeting us to give us a tour. We rushed off, leaving the Museum for another time.
We drove across the city to Capitol Hill and, to my surprise, pulled underneath the forecourt of the Parliament Building to park – not necessarily up to the safety standards of the United States.
The Parliament House, opened in 1988 to replace ‘Old Parliament’ which had been built as a temporary building in 1927 when Parliament moved from Melbourne, is a very understated structure from the front – until you realize that 90% of the building is under Capitol Hill. The idea was to blend the building into the landscape, and the by-product results in the ability of the public to walk on the roof of Parliament, which just appears to be grassy hill. Ashley said that the story goes that was a deliberate commentary of the place of the government to support the people – not bad.
After wandering around and taking some pictures we went through security, a metal detector, and went into the marble covered lobby of the building. Laura and her boyfriend, Ed, joined us a few moments later, and we decided to catch up to a tour group that had left a few minutes prior, to get a nice overview of the building.
The building is expansive, and light is brought in through a lot (I think they said 27) courtyards cut into the hill. It was a bit strange to not be in an old building to house a government like we are used to in the US. But, it was not a bad 1980s building (there were a few things that dated the building a bit) and it definitely was built for a country that was still growing – there are extra offices and extra room in both the house and senate chambers. There is something to be said for the usage of a new building for a government as there is better incorporated technology and the inclusion of all that extra space – two things that I would be surprised to see covered in our Capitol Building.
The Australian government, established after Federation in 1909, is modelled after the United States (if you didn’t pick that up from the ‘House’ and ‘Senate’) to appeal to both the large and small states and territories. There are 150 representatives (I think) that represent the states by population. Almost half are from NSW, followed closely by Queensland and Victoria. Northern Territory and Tasmania each have two (if my memory serves me correctly) and the ACT has five. In the Senate, each state (of which there are six) has twelve MPs. The two territories (Northern and ACT) each only receive two senators.
While the structure is modelled after the US, the chambers of each assembly are modelled after Britain. Apparently the upper house of the British Parliament has a red chamber and the lower house has a green chamber. In homage to their mother country, Australia followed suit, though in their new Parliament the colours were selected from an Australian palette, with the green being the leaves of the gum tree and the red (more a pink) being for the flowers of the same tree. After the tour of the chambers we went up to the roof to see out over Canberra down the main axis of the city. The view, over Old Parliament and down the mall to the War Memorial terminates at Mt. Ainsley. The axial qualities of the Capital take a direct cue from Washington. Emulation is the highest form of flattery.
With a few more stops in the building, commentary courtesy of Lauren, we dropped into the café in the building and lounged for a half hour for a chat. Ed is a furniture designer and does custom installations in houses in Sydney, plus it turns out his company is on a street I surveyed last week, so we had a nice to talking.
After midday we headed out of the building and back down to the car park so that we could continue our journey around Canberra. We headed down to Old Parliament, now home to the Museum of Democracy, and wandered around the building. It felt a bit more normal for government as it was historic in nature, but differed from the US Capital due to its vintage. I was shocked, but it was just like a building out of Vienna - the Vienna Succession movement was alive and well through the entire building. That being said, the building was small and never was built to have enough room for the growth of the country. The opening of the New Parliament in 1988 was long, long overdue.
We drove down to the National Portrait Gallery and ate a fantastic little café before wandering through the gallery. I’m not a huge art person, especially portraits, but the building was new and very well designed, so I didn’t mind a quite peruse. After, we walked next door to the Federal Courts Building along the Lake and saw the impressive glass atrium sailing up seven storeys, though the building was closed for the weekend.
The final tourist stop of the day was the War Memorial Museum. It was quite impressive (and surprisingly expansive). The museum itself has quite a collection from World War One through the Vietnam War, but the most impressive part is the memorial component which includes the name of every Australian soldier ever killed in action.
As the museum closed around 5:00 we got back in the car and headed over to Koko Black, a gourmet chocolate shop, in the centre of Canberra. We relaxed a bit and enjoyed some divine chocolate; I had chocolate affogato (hot chocolate over ice cream) with Florentines, brownie, and two pralines.
After that
sugar rush we went on a bit of a jaunt around the area, Garema Place, before
heading to dinner at Happy’s Chinese restaurant – a little hole in the wall
(actually in a basement). Dinner was delicious (as hole in the wall Chinese
restaurants can be) and we left content to head upstairs two flights to a
trendy little bar called Hippo to wait for some of Ashley’s friends to make it
downtown.
From Hippo we walked over to Transit Bar for a bit and played a few rounds of pool. Around 9:00 we crossed town to the Hellenic Club where we were to meet his friends. In Australia drinks are very expensive (as I have previously mentioned), but a way around that has been devised through the formation of not-for-profit clubs. Any organisation or community group (the Greeks in this case) can open a club and charge a few dollars for people to become a member. Membership is not exclusive and very inexpensive. Also, members are allowed to bring in guests, so it really is no financial burden for the benefit. Within the clubs, they have pokies (slot machines) which acts as a form of subsidy for the food and drinks served. Suddenly, a $17 cocktail at a regular bar becomes a $3 cocktail at a club.
Anyways, we wandered in and got a round of drinks (one of Ashley’s friends was tending bar) and soon met up with the friends we had been waiting for. We had a nice chat and stuck around for a bit before heading out to Uni Bar (they were trying to show me all the sites of Canberra) where we met five or six more people Ashley knew. It seems many bars in Australia have many, many floors, with different things going on on each. We had a drink in the pub downstairs and mingled before heading upstairs to the fifth floor to the club area where we danced for forty five minutes or so. I don’t go out all that often, especially since I have been down here, so it was quite a nice departure from the norm. Finally, we all trekked over to Transit to get a last round before we ended the night. We got home a few minutes back, and I am soon off to bed as we have another full day in Canberra before I have to leave.
Our first stop of the morning was for brekkie. We went to Tilley’s Cafe in Lyneham. We got there a few minutes before 9:00 and had to wait outside. As 9:00 rolled around a crowd had begun to gather, and we snagged a table among the many which had been reserved. The restaurant, a lounge and music club by night, filled up quickly – a testament to a very strong weekend breakfast culture that exists in Canberra that Ashley had told me about. I got pancakes with bacon and cream. The pancakes themselves were great, but the bacon and cream were honestly nothing to write home about (though turns out I did anyways). We chatted for a while and then headed off to our first non-gastronomic site for the day.
Being the nation’s capital, there became a desperate need for a massive telecommunications tower to relay broadcasts and get news in and out of the valleys that make up the city. In the 1980s it was decided to construct a massive tower on the top of Black Mountain on which to place and array of satellites. To justify the monstrosity which would be seen from everywhere in Canberra, towering over the natural landscape, they attempted to make an amenity of it by putting an observation deck and restaurant on top of it. And thus, Telstra Tower, I think now officially Black Mountain Tower was born. The view from the top was spectacular, giving a good idea of just how isolated the city is within the ‘Australian Alps’ and giving a very good perspective from which to view the urban layout of Canberra. It was quite windy at the top of the tower, and the morning had started off at a balmy 0C. None the less, the hole in the ozone layer that exists above Australia served to make the sun fairly warming.
After we had our fill of the sites we rode the lift back down the tower and descended back into the valley to head to our first museum (of which there are many in the city). We got to the National Australian Museum and only just saw the first tiny exhibit before Ashley informed me that his friend who works at Parliament, Laura, was going to be meeting us to give us a tour. We rushed off, leaving the Museum for another time.
We drove across the city to Capitol Hill and, to my surprise, pulled underneath the forecourt of the Parliament Building to park – not necessarily up to the safety standards of the United States.
The Parliament House, opened in 1988 to replace ‘Old Parliament’ which had been built as a temporary building in 1927 when Parliament moved from Melbourne, is a very understated structure from the front – until you realize that 90% of the building is under Capitol Hill. The idea was to blend the building into the landscape, and the by-product results in the ability of the public to walk on the roof of Parliament, which just appears to be grassy hill. Ashley said that the story goes that was a deliberate commentary of the place of the government to support the people – not bad.
After wandering around and taking some pictures we went through security, a metal detector, and went into the marble covered lobby of the building. Laura and her boyfriend, Ed, joined us a few moments later, and we decided to catch up to a tour group that had left a few minutes prior, to get a nice overview of the building.
The building is expansive, and light is brought in through a lot (I think they said 27) courtyards cut into the hill. It was a bit strange to not be in an old building to house a government like we are used to in the US. But, it was not a bad 1980s building (there were a few things that dated the building a bit) and it definitely was built for a country that was still growing – there are extra offices and extra room in both the house and senate chambers. There is something to be said for the usage of a new building for a government as there is better incorporated technology and the inclusion of all that extra space – two things that I would be surprised to see covered in our Capitol Building.
The Australian government, established after Federation in 1909, is modelled after the United States (if you didn’t pick that up from the ‘House’ and ‘Senate’) to appeal to both the large and small states and territories. There are 150 representatives (I think) that represent the states by population. Almost half are from NSW, followed closely by Queensland and Victoria. Northern Territory and Tasmania each have two (if my memory serves me correctly) and the ACT has five. In the Senate, each state (of which there are six) has twelve MPs. The two territories (Northern and ACT) each only receive two senators.
While the structure is modelled after the US, the chambers of each assembly are modelled after Britain. Apparently the upper house of the British Parliament has a red chamber and the lower house has a green chamber. In homage to their mother country, Australia followed suit, though in their new Parliament the colours were selected from an Australian palette, with the green being the leaves of the gum tree and the red (more a pink) being for the flowers of the same tree. After the tour of the chambers we went up to the roof to see out over Canberra down the main axis of the city. The view, over Old Parliament and down the mall to the War Memorial terminates at Mt. Ainsley. The axial qualities of the Capital take a direct cue from Washington. Emulation is the highest form of flattery.
With a few more stops in the building, commentary courtesy of Lauren, we dropped into the café in the building and lounged for a half hour for a chat. Ed is a furniture designer and does custom installations in houses in Sydney, plus it turns out his company is on a street I surveyed last week, so we had a nice to talking.
After midday we headed out of the building and back down to the car park so that we could continue our journey around Canberra. We headed down to Old Parliament, now home to the Museum of Democracy, and wandered around the building. It felt a bit more normal for government as it was historic in nature, but differed from the US Capital due to its vintage. I was shocked, but it was just like a building out of Vienna - the Vienna Succession movement was alive and well through the entire building. That being said, the building was small and never was built to have enough room for the growth of the country. The opening of the New Parliament in 1988 was long, long overdue.
We drove down to the National Portrait Gallery and ate a fantastic little café before wandering through the gallery. I’m not a huge art person, especially portraits, but the building was new and very well designed, so I didn’t mind a quite peruse. After, we walked next door to the Federal Courts Building along the Lake and saw the impressive glass atrium sailing up seven storeys, though the building was closed for the weekend.
The final tourist stop of the day was the War Memorial Museum. It was quite impressive (and surprisingly expansive). The museum itself has quite a collection from World War One through the Vietnam War, but the most impressive part is the memorial component which includes the name of every Australian soldier ever killed in action.
As the museum closed around 5:00 we got back in the car and headed over to Koko Black, a gourmet chocolate shop, in the centre of Canberra. We relaxed a bit and enjoyed some divine chocolate; I had chocolate affogato (hot chocolate over ice cream) with Florentines, brownie, and two pralines.
 |
| Chocolate from Koko. |
From Hippo we walked over to Transit Bar for a bit and played a few rounds of pool. Around 9:00 we crossed town to the Hellenic Club where we were to meet his friends. In Australia drinks are very expensive (as I have previously mentioned), but a way around that has been devised through the formation of not-for-profit clubs. Any organisation or community group (the Greeks in this case) can open a club and charge a few dollars for people to become a member. Membership is not exclusive and very inexpensive. Also, members are allowed to bring in guests, so it really is no financial burden for the benefit. Within the clubs, they have pokies (slot machines) which acts as a form of subsidy for the food and drinks served. Suddenly, a $17 cocktail at a regular bar becomes a $3 cocktail at a club.
Anyways, we wandered in and got a round of drinks (one of Ashley’s friends was tending bar) and soon met up with the friends we had been waiting for. We had a nice chat and stuck around for a bit before heading out to Uni Bar (they were trying to show me all the sites of Canberra) where we met five or six more people Ashley knew. It seems many bars in Australia have many, many floors, with different things going on on each. We had a drink in the pub downstairs and mingled before heading upstairs to the fifth floor to the club area where we danced for forty five minutes or so. I don’t go out all that often, especially since I have been down here, so it was quite a nice departure from the norm. Finally, we all trekked over to Transit to get a last round before we ended the night. We got home a few minutes back, and I am soon off to bed as we have another full day in Canberra before I have to leave.
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